page_title: Józef Piłsudski
section_title: Rebuilding Poland
hierarchical_section_title: Józef Piłsudski / Rebuilding Poland
caption_attribution_description: Català: El Monument a Józef Piłsudski a Turek (Józef Gosławski). English: Monument of Marshall Józef Piłsudski in Turek, sculptured by Józef Gosławski. Polski: Pomnik Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego w Turku, autorstwa Józefa Gosławskiego. Deutsch: Denkmal von Józef Piłsudski in Turek, ausgelegt von Józef Gosławski. Español: Monumento a Józef Piłsudski en Turek diseñado por Józef Gosławski. Français&#160;: La statue de Józef Piłsudski à Turek (conçu par Józef Gosławski). Magyar: Józef Piłsudski emlékműve Turekben (terv 1936-ból, Józef Gosławski). Italiano: Il monumento a Józef Piłsudski in Turek, progettato da Józef Gosławski. Nederlands: Standbeeld van Józef Piłsudski in Turek (auteur:Józef Gosławski). Português: Monumento de Józef Piłsudski em Turek projetado por Józef Gosławski.
context_page_description: Józef Klemens Piłsudski was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State and First Marshal of Poland. He was considered the de facto leader of the Second Polish Republic as the Minister of Military Affairs. After World War I, he held great power in Polish politics and was a distinguished figure on the international scene. He is viewed as a father of the Second Polish Republic re-established in 1918, 123 years after the final Partition of Poland by Austria, Prussia and Russia in 1795.
  Seeing himself as a descendant of the culture and traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Piłsudski believed in a multi-ethnic Poland—"a home of nations" including indigenous ethnic and religious minorities he hoped would establish a robust union with the independent states of Lithuania and Ukraine. His principal political opponent, Roman Dmowski, leader of the National Democrat party, by contrast, called for a Poland limited to the pre-Partitions Polish Crown and based mainly on a homogeneous ethnically Polish population and Roman Catholic identity.
  Early in his political career, Piłsudski became a leader of the Polish Socialist Party.
context_section_description: On 11 November 1918 in Warsaw, Piłsudski was appointed Commander in Chief of Polish forces by the Regency Council and was entrusted with creating a national government for the newly independent country. On that very day, which would become Poland's Independence Day, he proclaimed an independent Polish state.
  That week, Piłsudski negotiated the evacuation of the German garrison from Warsaw and of other German troops from the "Ober Ost" authority. Over 55,000 Germans peacefully departed Poland, leaving their weapons to the Poles. In coming months, over 400,000 total departed Polish territories.
  On 14 November 1918, Piłsudski was asked to supervise provisionally the running of the country. On 22 November he officially received, from the new government of Jędrzej Moraczewski, the title of Provisional Chief of State (Naczelnik Państwa) of renascent Poland.
  Various Polish military organizations and provisional governments (the Regency Council in Warsaw; Ignacy Daszyński's government in Lublin; and the Polish Liquidation Committee in Kraków) bowed to Piłsudski, who set about forming a new coalition government. It was predominantly socialist and introduced many reforms long proclaimed as necessary by the Polish Socialist Party, such as the eight-hour day, free school education and women's suffrage, to avoid major unrest.
  However, Piłsudski believed that as head of state, he must be above partisan politics. The day after his arrival in Warsaw, he met with old colleagues from underground days, who addressed him socialist-style as "Comrade" ("Towarzysz") and asked for his support for their revolutionary policies; he refused it and answered: "Comrades, I took the red tram of socialism to the stop called Independence, and that's where I got off. You may keep on to the final stop if you wish, but from now on let's address each other as 'Mister' [rather than continue using the socialist term of address, 'Comrade']!" He declined to support any party and did not form any political organization of his own; instead, he advocated creating a coalition government. He also set about organizing a Polish army out of Polish veterans of the German, Russian and Austrian armies.
  In the days immediately after the war, Piłsudski attempted to build a government in a shattered country. Much of former Russian Poland had been destroyed in the war, and systematic looting by the Germans had reduced the region's wealth by at least 10%. A British diplomat who visited Warsaw in January 1919 reported: "I have nowhere seen anything like the evidences of extreme poverty and wretchedness that meet one's eye at almost every turn."
  In addition, the country had to unify the disparate systems of law, economics, and administration in the former German, Austrian, and Russian sectors of Poland. There were nine legal systems, five currencies, and 66 types of rail systems (with 165 models of locomotives), each needing to be consolidated.
  Wacław Jędrzejewicz, in Piłsudski: A Life for Poland, described Piłsudski as very deliberate in his decision-making:  Piłsudski collected all available pertinent information, then took his time weighing it before arriving at a final decision.  He drove himself hard, working all day and all night. He maintained a simple lifestyle, eating plain meals alone at an inexpensive restaurant. Though he was popular with much of the Polish public, his reputation as a loner (the result of many years' underground work) and as a man who distrusted almost everyone led to strained relations with other Polish politicians.
  Piłsudski and the first Polish government were distrusted in the West because he had co-operated with the Central Powers in 1914 to 1917 and because the governments of Daszyński and Jędrzej Moraczewski were primarily socialist. It was not until January 1919, when the world-famous pianist and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski became Prime Minister of Poland and foreign minister of a new government, that it was recognized in the West.
  That still left two separate governments claiming to be Poland's legitimate government: Piłsudski's in Warsaw 
caption: Piłsudski monument, Turek (designed in 1936)
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